‘My son was murdered, nothing will bring back my loving boy’ – London father bemoans

Patrick Boyce, the 62-year-old father of a teenager, Jamel who died more than five years after being stabbed by his friend in Clapham expresses pain of the loss in his heart.

Patrick wants to show the world the real-life impact of knife crime.

He lost Jamel in 2022 after his injuries left him blind, unable to speak and largely paralyzed.

“Everybody loved him. He was a quiet-natured boy, very thoughtful of others.

“I had plans for him, aspirations for him. I wanted him to take over my business, he was starting driving lessons and going to get a car,” Patrick is quoted by MyLondon.

According to the online magazine, Jamel and his father loved going to football matches together, going to the pub and just ‘hanging out’. “He was my friend as well. He was everything to me,” he said.

Jamel loved nature, his father says. He even disliked it when his dad would use fly-catchers at the shop that he ran and would tell him to ‘let them go!’

Jamel was said to be often helping out at his father’s shop.

Patrick says Jamel wasn’t allowed to be out on the streets after he finished college or school, unlike some of his other friends.

“A lot of his friends were jealous because he wasn’t out on the streets. He had a purpose,” he said.

Jamel was a 17-year-old business student at St Francis Xavier College in Clapham when he was stabbed near a Sainsbury’s car park in Triangle Place on October 14, 2016.

He was treated at the scene by London Ambulance Service but went into cardiac arrest before arriving in hospital, depriving his brain of oxygen for a crucial 14 minutes.

Jamel’s injuries, including stab wounds to the chest and leg, left him in a ‘vegetative state’ and needing round-the-clock medical care in hospital.

Five and a half years later, he died in a care home on February 13, 2022, at the age of 22.

“I just had to be with Jamel, especially in the first few weeks. It was very tough,” said Patrick.

He also described how the tragic incident led to him losing the shop he ran, while he juggled caring for his son and working.

“The emotions were unbelievable. I was drinking a lot,” he said. “It doesn’t just affect the victim but also the family and community.”

Tyrese Osei-Kofi, who had attended college with Jamel, was originally sentenced to jail for ten years in May 2018 for grievous bodily harm. In December of this year, he was sentenced to seven years and ten months for Jamel’s murder.

“No matter how many years he’s sentenced to, it’s never going to replace the life of my son,” said Patrick. “I can’t ever forgive him for what he’s done but I don’t hate him. I feel sorry for him if anything, he’s ruined his life, he’s ruined my son’s life.”

The pathetic story continues here